This invention relates generally to wireless telecommunications systems and, in particular, to those having mobile stations or subscribers that offer services or information to calling parties.
In current wireless telecommunications systems that are known to the inventor, there is no straightforward way in which to access a service or information that an individual mobile subscriber may be willing to offer to the public via his or her mobile telephone number.
As an example, consider the case of calling unconditionally to a particular mobile subscriber""s voice mail service that is provided by that subscriber""s network operator. Assume that person A wishes to unconditionally leave a voice mail message in the voice mail of target subscriber B. That is, assume that person A wishes the call to go to subscriber B""s voice mail, regardless of whether subscriber B has call forwarding to his voice mail set on or off.
In order to make the call to the mobile subscriber B""s voice mail from a typical mobile phone the following procedure would be used. First the caller fetches the desired subscriber B""s regular mobile telephone number from the memory of the mobile station (assuming that it has been stored in the memory). Next, the recalled number can be edited to the number of the target subscriber B""s voice mail number (e.g., by changing one or more predetermined digits to another digit). The edited number is then dialled to enable the caller to leave the voice mail message in the target subscriber""s answering machine resource provided by the network operator.
However, the execution of the foregoing procedure includes the following problems. First, the actual editing of the telephone number may be tedious, as the caller has to fetch the number, choose options (i.e., Edit), move to the digit(s) to be changed, clear the digit(s) and then input a new digit or digits. Only after this procedure will the call reach subscriber B""s voice mail unconditionally.
Second, the caller may accidentally overwrite the original number with the edited number.
Third, if subscriber B""s number was not in the memory of the caller""s mobile station, then the caller is required to remember and manually enter the subscriber B"" voice mail number.
Fourth, different network operators typically have different ways to indicate that the desired service is not subscriber B""s regular mobile number, but is instead subscriber B""s voice mail number. If the selection of service (unconditional access to subscriber B""s voice mail) is done manually by the caller, then the caller must know subscriber B""s operator, as well as the operator""s standard way in which to specify subscriber B""s voice mail. As but one example, the voice mail of a subscriber of Telecom Finland can be accessed unconditionally by changing the first actual digit of the subscriber B""s phone number to an 8 if it is a 5. However, other network operators may use another digit to differentiate the regular mobile telephone number from that subscriber""s voice mail number.
In a related manner, over time network operators may change their standard indications for unconditional access to voice mail. As such, even if the caller is able to memorize the procedures for several network operators, there is no guarantee that these procedures will not change.
It is a first object and advantage of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for accessing information and/or a service offered by or otherwise associated with a particular subscriber, that overcomes the foregoing and other problems.
It is another object and advantage of this invention to provide Advanced Personal Service (APS) methods and apparatus for enabling a user of a mobile station to generically specify a desired service or type of service, and to which the network responds by connecting the user to a desired destination where the desired service or type of service can be found.
The foregoing and other problems are overcome and the objects of the invention are realized by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.
A method for operating a wireless telecommunications system is disclosed, as is a system that operates in accordance with the method. The method has steps of (a) formulating a request in a mobile station for a particular type of service (an Advanced Personal Service or APS request) that is offered by a network for a particular subscriber or that is offered by another party; (b) transmitting the request to the network over a radio channel; (c) interpreting the request and, based on the interpretation, determining contact information (such as a telephone number or a data network address) for a destination location that will fulfil the request; and (d) using the determined contact information, connecting the mobile station to the destination location. In one embodiment the contact information is looked up in a database, while in another embodiment the contact information is created by modifying a telephone number sent with the request (e.g., the called subscriber""s normal telephone number) into a second telephone number (e.g. the called subscriber""s voice mail number).
In a first embodiment the request is transmitted prior to transmitting a call connect setup message from the mobile station to the network, and in another embodiment the request is transmitted as a part of a call connect setup message sent from the mobile station to the network. The request is comprised of at least one bit (a Header field) for indicating that the request is a request formulated by the mobile station for a particular type of service, and a plurality of bits (an Information field) for indicating the type of requested service.
In a preferred embodiment the step of formulating comprises a step of displaying a menu to the user, and information conveyed by the transmitted request is based at least in part on the type of menu that was displayed and on the user""s interaction with the displayed menu.